Next-Level Customer Support for the Fintech Industry: What Needs to Change

Customer support can make the difference between a business that’s successful or one that’s just so-so. A comprehensive system to handle client queries, address issues, and provide bespoke solutions is what a fintech company needs to get on board the growth train. Given the importance and sensitivity of client finances, fintech companies need to incorporate the best possible customer service system.

An invisible gap exists between customers and fintech firms, especially in terms of support delivery and approach to technology. Crucially, clients need to feel they have someone to trust and depend on when faced with operational and other problems. As such, an effective customer support team must be ever vigilant and aware of customers’ issues—and provide resolutions when required.

What is Customer Support in Fintech Like Now?

Fintech firms face some problems with customer support that are common to almost every industry, such as low first-call resolution rates, not providing omnichannel support, and not building solutions for different demographics. Moreover, they have an issue that’s unique to their industry—customers’ lack of trust when it comes to sharing sensitive financial information.

Here’s a quick review of existing customer support challenges in fintech—as well as what your organization can do to overcome them.

Preferring Apps Over Other Online Solutions

Mobile apps are everywhere, and while they’ve been readily adopted by the younger generation, older customers haven’t found the move quite as easy—especially with respect to fintech apps. Although many in this age group have smart devices, most aren’t that confident about using them. If you’re not tech-savvy, navigating through fintech applications can be a nightmare. No wonder then that older clients are often unhappy with customer support! This represents a significant missed opportunity to provide effective support services to this cohort.

One of the general problems with these apps is that they lack the human touch. Therefore, the onus is on the company to build more suitable customer support systems, including voice and video support. By doing this, you’ll be able to engage with customers from all demographics.

Focusing Too Much on Chat Support

Fintech companies are avid supporters of chatbots. Have you noticed that chatbot usage has increased post-pandemic? Beyond being an innovative tool, they’re now a crucial business technology. AI-driven chatbots have the ability to quickly resolve queries with just a few prompts. That’s why they’ve become a preferred method of delivering customer solutions.

That said, chatbots have their limitations. The human touch—as we mentioned before—is missing. In addition, chatbots cannot provide precise and accurate solutions to the more complex problems faced by fintech clients. To deliver a better customer experience, chats need to be more personalized—a feat that current AI models have yet to accomplish.

Requiring Sensitive Info From the Customer

There is a general lack of trust about divulging personal financial information—for good reason. Giving sensitive info such as bank account details to an AI-powered chatbot or a human operator can be risky. As scams become more prevalent, customers are thinking twice about what they share and with whom.

Fintech organizations are no exception. New and existing customers may not have the confidence to share the required information for fear that it might become compromised. Unfortunately, without these details, customer services won’t be able to operate effectively.

To overcome this barrier, you’ll have to convince clients that their data is safe and protected. For example, market your services as confidential, secure, and transparent. Further, establish a good customer support system—one that has that personal touch. In many instances, an overly tech interface may make clients feel alienated from the product. To address this, fintech companies need to take a new approach toward providing remote support.

What Needs to Change in Fintech Customer Support?

Good customer service is the key to building a successful business—no matter the industry. In fact, it’s essential both for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service report found that 90% of clients consider customer service to be an important aspect when choosing a brand.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the best ways to implement fintech customer support.

Adapt to the Needs of All Demographics

There are two aspects to this proposition:

• Recognize your customers and target audience
• Adapt to the needs of all demographic groups in the target audience

Customers in every demographic are unique, and fintech companies must build a customer support system that recognizes this. The ways in which clients interact with your brand are also different. As a result, you’ll need to identify their specific differences and deliver solutions that suit these needs. This includes finding out which devices they prefer using to access your services and what issues they may have faced with previous solutions.

Prioritize Customer Privacy

According to the Business Innovators Index, 75% of customers consider trust to be a crucial factor when buying a product. The same study finds that when businesses have earned their customers’ trust, it’s easier to innovate and grow.

This underlines how vital it is to protect your clients’ privacy. One data breach could see a business lose up to 65% of its customer base. For companies in developed nations, that rises to potential losses of 80% of their customers after a security breach.

There are various routes that organizations can take to improve their data security. Technology encryption protects financial and other personal client records. It’s also possible to mask sensitive data to so it won’t be displayed to customer support staff.

Current protocols and best practices involve multifactor authentication and authorization, which requires clients to enter more than one piece of identifying information. In addition, systems and components need to be up-to-date and able to constantly monitor client activities. For instance, their user IDs, device data, IP addresses, geolocation, and transactions to pick up any suspicious activity.

Widen Channels for Communication

Fintech companies would do well to adopt an omnichannel mode of communication if they want to deliver 360-degree customer support services. Omnichannel means going one step further than multi-channel communication. In multi-channel, a company uses various modes of communication, including text, voice, email, video chat, etc., to connect with their customers. With omnichannel, all these channels are connected.

Therefore, if a customer first connects via a video call, and thereafter through chat, the customer service suite will consolidate the entire conversation history. This can be accomplished through customer remote support software, which brings together communication channels and merges their information. As a result, customer support staff will receive a brief on the client’s previous interactions with their team—whether it’s via chatbot, email, or telephone.

Invest in Customer Support Tools

For a better customer support service, fintech companies need to utilize tools and technologies that help in-house teams improve their response times and efficiency. The last thing you need is frustrated customers having to contact the company multiple times for the same issue.

Using the right suite of tools makes it easier to respond to—and resolve—clients’ queries. These tools should enable capabilities such as one-click report generation, automated first response, elevating customer request to the right person, a one-stop customer information portal, and more.

For teams wanting to improve their delivery metrics, the most valuable customer support solutions currently include these tools:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software records all customer communications to help businesses better manage their clients—increasing efficiency as well as boosting profitability in the process.
• Customer support and helpdesk software consolidates all customer queries onto a single platform.
• Knowledge bases comprise current, AI-curated FAQ databases to provide the best answers to customer queries.
• Messaging and chat tools assist with the delivery of real-time customer services.

How ScreenMeet Helps Improve Customer Support

ScreenMeet provides a novel solution to all the challenges companies face in delivering seamless customer support.

Using ScreenMeet, you can conduct real-time virtual interactions, allowing your support team to see from a customer’s perspective without asking them to download or install plugins. This cuts down on the time and effort required on the customer’s end to establish connectivity.

Moreover, to help with maintaining customer privacy, ScreenMeet does not allow agents to view sensitive data. Even though they have a complete view of the customer’s screen, personal information is masked.

ScreenMeet supports digital engagement, which provides a variety of ways for support agents to connect with the customer’s journey securely from day one—including video calls, on-screen annotations, masking sensitive data during a cobrowsing session, and keyboard/mouse control.

By providing a unified solution, ScreenMeet is integrated with Salesforce and other CRM systems, which guarantees improved efficiency and allows agents to have everything they need in one place. There’s no need to switch between different platforms to access information. As a result, operational expenses will come down, while customer support services ROI will improve significantly.

To find out more, contact us today to schedule a ScreenMeet demo.